Language of Numbers
by CyberianTsuinami
Summary: The death of a fellow agent brings Don in direct conflict with Agent Cheyenne Lynn, the head of the linguistics department. Though the other members of the team and his brother like her, Don has his doubts about her involvement in the murder.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfiction for Numb3rs. As always, I claim no right to the characters in the show, but I do claim right to Ms. Cheyenne Lynn. I hope that you enjoy the piece, and please, let me know if there is anything you enjoyed or disliked. I love constructive criticism!

Also, I want to warn those dedicated to the show that I've started this fanfiction after season 5. Of course, when season 6 starts this Friday, it'll be Alternate Universe unless I've somehow connected brains with the creators and set them Cheyenne Lynn, but that's highly unlikely boardering on impossible so... Following chapters may take into account what happens in the new season with or without Cheyenne Lynn, but I'll decide that once I've seen the new episodes. I make no gaurantees but promise that if I do any spoilers for the new season I'll make sure to warn you about them before the chapter that contains them. I assume that all readers of this fanfiction have seen all the way through from season1 to season 5; if you haven't seen all of those shows, I take no responsibility for any spoilers I write into this story.

Without further ado, the story:

* * *

The Language of Numbers

Chapter One

_It had to be the wedding, _Don thought taking another sip from his beer. He was sitting in front of the TV at the craftsman watching what was left of a hockey game. In the background, Charlie and Amita were discussing flower arrangements or the guest list or color themes or something, he didn't know what. He just knew that it had something to do with the wedding.

They were sitting at the dining room table discussing (he classified it more along the lines of a debate but Charlie and Amita refused to call it such) something. He found himself becoming slightly annoyed by the whole process. It was so slight that he wasn't sure what about the wedding it was directing towards or even if it had originally been something else and the emotion had somehow transferred. He was happy for his brother and Amita, but every time someone said something about the wedding he felt a twinge in the back of his head forcing him to think of what he was going to say before he said it, which generally caused him to stutter.

His father, Alan, was sitting in the chair beside him reading of book of some kind. Charlie and Amita had banished him from helping them plan, at least, until they decided a when and where. They had decided to have it in the backyard until Amita's parents informed their daughter that they would like to have her marry in India. Then all of the students, faculty, and staff at CalSci expressed an interest in coming to the wedding and reception. The Eppes' backyard couldn't hold all of the people who wished to come to the wedding of the two most popular faculty members in the history of the university.

Suddenly, Don's phone rang, and he reached for it. He could feel everyone's eyes shift to him for various reasons. Charlie looked as if he was counting on this phone call to get him out of whatever discussion it sounded like he was losing. Amita was glaring at the phone as if it was the one thing that stood between her and her dream wedding. Alan looked at the phone with his usual disapproval for the trouble, gun shots, and lost time it gave his sons.

"Hey, Don, it's David," Don heard from the other side of the phone. There were sounds of a motor and passing vehicles; he must be in his car on the way to the scene. He could hear Colby in the background calling the other members of the team. "We've been called onto a scene. I've sent the location to your phone."

"I'll be right there," he told David as he hang up and started for the door.

Charlie stood up and intercepted his brother. "Hey, do you need me for anything?" His face was hopeful, but Don knew that Charlie was needed more here right now than he was needed at the crime scene whatever it maybe. Besides, Don didn't know what he was walking into, and he didn't like the idea of bringing his brother into an unknown situation.

"I don't know…" he stalled so that his brother wouldn't be too disheartened that he had said no too quickly. "How about you stop by tomorrow? I have to go." He finished making his way to the door and went to exit. "See you later," he called over his shoulder to the entire household.

* * *

The crime scene's neighborhood was one of the more wealthy places in the city, and that immediately put Don on edge. It wasn't often that they had to deal with the rich and famous, but whenever they did, he found it just a little harder to deal with their arrogance and selfishness. After dealing with his brother and future sister-in-law arguing he didn't feel like dealing with the more fortunate.

He pushed all of this away when he pulled up the scene and stepped out of his car though. It wasn't until then that he noticed all of the law enforcement agents that were milling around, and he flashed back to Nikki Davis' murder. Her place had been swarming with federal officers because she had been a fellow agent. For a moment, Don's heart fell into his chest. "Please don't let it be anyone I know," he prayed for a second then walked under crime scene tape.

He walked up the rose-lined driveway until he came to David talking with a woman in a dark tank-top, blue jeans, and a unseasonably-warm leather jacket. She had short brown hair and, Don noticed once he got closer, smelled like Tequila. She seemed to be insistent on talking to "the agent in charge" because she wouldn't take David's answer that Don was not here yet and would get back to her once the investigation was over.

"Can I help you?" Don said stepping up beside her and flashing his badge.

She turned towards him and looked at him estimatingly. She appeared to be in her early thirties or late twenties, but the scowl that she was sporting added five years to her face. "Are you Agent Don Eppes?" she asked.

"I am," Don answered, not at all liking the attitude that she was giving him. "Is there something that I can help you with?" She had to be the family of the victim to be on this side of the tape.

"I'm Special Agent Cheyenne Lynn," she said flipping her badge off of her belt so that he could take a closer look at it. "That's my agent in that pool, and I wanted to let you know that my department is more than willing to give you anything that you require to find out who killed him. I also want to be kept in the loop for this investigation."

Instead of giving her his answer right away, Don raised his eyebrows as if to say, "Is that so?" and took a closer look at her credentials. It said that she was in charge of the linguistics department, but she was cleared for fieldwork. Then again, since she was a Special Agent, she would have to be able to do fieldwork, but Don doubted that she was really had that much field experience. The linguistics department was only used when the other departments needed a translator.

Don handed her badge back to her and said, "I'm sorry, Agent Lynn, but I just got on the scene so I have no news for you. I'll let you know as soon as I know anything." He said with a smile and turned to walk away, but he had no intention of letting her get herself involved in his investigation.

She must have seen something on his face that told her his thoughts because she said, "Agent Eppes, what would you do if it was one of your agents?" She must have saw him stop mid-step and the look that David and him shared because she stepped closer so that she was standing toe-to-toe with him. She was so much shorter than him that it would have been funny except for the anger shining through her eyes. "What would you do if it was one of your agents chained to the bottom of his pool by a cinderblock? What if it was Agent Sinclair at the bottom of that pool? What would you do? Would you sit back and wait until another Agent and his team solved the case? Would you be able to go home and go to bed when you know that one of your closest friend's murderer was out running free? Would you be able to do that Agent Eppes? If you could, I feel sorry that your team means so little to you."

Don was wavering between feeling sorry for her and being so pissed that he almost wanted to hit her. How dare she amuse that he didn't have feelings for his team! For heartbeats, he just stood there glaring at her, and she in turn glared at him. Out of the corner of his eye, Don could see David starting to look uncomfortable. "Go home, Agent Lynn," Don said as started to walk away from her. For several steps, he could feel her eyes boring into his back, but then it sounded like she opened her phone, called someone, and started chatting away in a different language as she walked out of the scene. Just as Don was rounding the house and getting his first look at the swimming pool that she had mentioned, he heard a motorcycle start up and go roaring down the street away from the house.

* * *

The swimming pool would have been beautiful if it wasn't for the bloated, deformed body that was floating from where it was chained to a cinderblock so heavy that they were having problems getting it out of the pool. Colby was talking with the ME who was standing next to the pool but made his way over to Don when he noticed him.

"The ME estimates that he's been in there for about a week, but he should be able to get a more definite timeframe once he is able to get the body back to the morgue and examines it," Colby said looking worried. Don nodded his head as Colby looked at David with a, "What happened?"

David responded with a look that said, "I'll tell you later."

"Where's Liz and Nikki?" Don asked trying to get his mind away from Agent Lynn. Something bothered him about her and he was almost sure that it had something to do other than just how angry she had made him. _She was so angry_, he thought. _And drunk_, his mind added. _And she knew so quickly about his murder_. She had gotten there even before he was. She must have known almost at the same time he did. Yes, he had suspicions about her relationship with this man, and if she had been the one that sent him to the bottom of his pool.

"They were sitting with his widow and trying to ask her some questions," Colby responded. "However, it seems as if the woman can't speak English so they have to wait on a translator."

Don ran his hand over his face. "I'll go let them know that she won't be coming," he said as he entered the house.

"What happened?" Colby said as soon as the door shut behind Don.

David turned towards his partner. "He had a fight with a woman from the linguist department," he said then proceeded to tell Colby the entire story.


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome back! The new season is awesome, BTW.

As always, I don't own Numb3rs or any of the characters on it.

This is the next chapter. It's about as short as the last one which I don't understand because I usually write long chapters, but that's just the way it's happening. I hope you like this chapter, and, as always, feel free to leave any comments.

* * *

Chapter Two

When Don told her about what had happened between him and Cheyenne, Liz knew that it wasn't over, but she wasn't going to tell Don that despite the fact that she probably should. She knew Cheyenne during her short time in Narcotics. Cheyenne was a decent agent and could be very perceptive at times, but she did have a little bit of an anger issue. They had come to be rather good friends, and Liz knew that Cheyenne didn't take insults well. She should have been use to it and the negative assumptions that encircled the Linguistics department, and it just seemed to make her more defensive.

Liz truly didn't think that Don had handled the situation well, but she was pretty sure that Cheyenne hadn't either. In her opinion, both of them needed to learn to play well with others. As soon as she had a free moment, she called Cheyenne. In typical Cheyenne fashion, she answered the phone in a foreign language with extremely loud music playing in the background.

"Cheyenne, it's Liz," she yelled into the phone. "Go outside; I need to talk to you."

"Sorry, Liz," Cheyenne said a few moments later when she was somewhere quieter. "I guess your boss just confessed to you that he got into an argument with the friend that was doing you a favor."

"Not exactly, he just told me that he dismissed our translator; I haven't told him that I called you specifically." Liz looked across the room to where the crying widow still sat on a sofa with Nikki; Nikki looked at Liz with an inquisitive look as if she wanted to know why Liz was on the phone instead of helping her.

"Yeah," Cheyenne said with a sigh, "I guess I did make an annoyance of myself, but he just made me so mad! He acted as if my experience wasn't valid just because I'm in Linguistics."

"I know, Cheyenne. Look, I still need help with Mrs. Mihailov. Is there anyway that you or someone else could get over here first thing tomorrow?"

Cheyenne half-laughed on the other side of the phone, and Liz knew that she didn't want to hear what Cheyenne was about to say next. "I'm sorry, Liz, but tomorrow, the entire Linguistics department is taking a day to grieve for our fallen companion and the day after, if necessary."

Liz groaned on the inside. Cheyenne was a very capable leader, and the entire department would do anything that she asked of them. But this was going a little too far. "You can't do that, Cheyenne. It would stop the FBI from doing its job."

"That's the point, Liz. The department takes a lot of shit because we're 'just translators'; for the most part, we've taken it. Now that one of our own has been murdered and we've been told that we can't help in the investigation, we've taking a stand. We want respect, and until we get it, we ain't doing a thing."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Please, Cheyenne, I know you. You're just pissed off at Agent Eppes."

"I never said that a personal apology from him to me wouldn't hurt," Cheyenne said with a smile in her voice. Liz knew that she had been right.

"Well, I still need help with Mrs. Mihailov…"

"Liz, I wouldn't be owing me any favors right now," Cheyenne cutted Liz off. She was serious again, and Liz knew that she was trying to be a friend. She was heading down a slippery slope and knew it; she didn't want to drag Liz down with her. "I don't know how this is going to turn out. If you owe me a favor, I might have to call it in just so I know how the case is going; hell, worse case scenario, I might have to ask you to side with me and go up against your boss. Owing me a favor right now could have serious implications on your career."

"I already owe you one," Liz answered despite the fact that it was good reasoning. "You did come all the way over here."

"We'll consider that one null and void. I didn't help you with your questioning, and you might have done me a favor because of it. You knows when I would have heard about Viktor if it wasn't for you."

"I'll take the risks of owing you a favor, Cheyenne. I really need help. The wife is still in tears, and no one here can talk to her at all. I don't just need help asking questions; I need someone to tell her what's going on and to reassure her."

"Well, like I said before, she might not be willing to talk to me, but put me on speaker phone. I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Cheyenne," Liz said on her way back over to the sofa that the widow and Nikki were still sitting on.

"Don't thank me yet, Liz. You might regret this later."

* * *

Meanwhile, back outside on the scene, Don's phone rang. Before he answered it, he looked at the caller id; it was Robin. He didn't know why she was calling; she had told him that she had to work late on a case. Walking away from the scene a little, he answered the phone. "What's up?"

She seemed worried and stressed. "Are you on the Viktor Mihailov case?"

He was a little concerned that she knew about what case he was working on with specifics about who the victim was. "Yes," he answered. "Why?"

She sighed on the other side of the phone. It had a little bit of relief but also a lot of frustration and concern. "I'll fill you and the rest of your team in on the details tomorrow, but he was working with me on a case concerning the Russian mob. He was supposed to be on vacation with his wife all this week so I didn't know that he was missing. Don, this will severely hinder my case."

* * *

When Don walked into the office in the morning, he found Liz waiting for him at the elevator; he was extremely surprised. Out of all of the people that he expected to be here, Liz wasn't one that he expected. He had expected Agent Lynn or the Assistant Director once he heard that Agent Lynn had closed down the Linguistics Department, but he didn't understand what Liz would have to say to him.

"What's up, Liz?" he asked as he walked towards her. She was looking nervous. She had her arms folded, and her eyebrows were crunched. She looked like she did when she wasn't sure if she wanted to date Don or not.

Don was worried, but she just unfolded her arms and said, "Don, I have to talk to you. You're not going to like it, and I would prefer if we did it in private."

Instantly, Don was suspicious. He had no idea what she could want to talk to him about that, especially right now concerning this case. Maybe she had some bad news about the wife of the victim, but if it concerned the case, he didn't know why she didn't want to talk about it out in the open in front of the other agents. "Okay," he said cautiously. "Let's go to the conference room," he said leading the way.

Liz stepped up beside him but remained quiet and uncommitted; there was very little that he could read from her stance. He could tell, however, that she was nervous about how he was going to respond to what she wanted to tell him. When they walked into the conference room, Liz curved around so she was on the other side of the table looking at Don. She was taking plenty of precautions, and it was making Don nervous.

"What's the problem?" Don said, but Liz leaned against the table and didn't say anything. She looked as if she was waiting her thoughts or words; she was chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Come on, Liz. You're making me nervous."

She sighed. "I'm the one that called, Cheyenne," she finally admitted then looked up and waited for Don to say something. She was observing his facial features. When she stopped him just off the elevator, his eyebrows when up in surprise. When she said that she needed to talk to him in private, his forehead wrinkled. When she entered the conference room, walked around the table, and waited to speak, he passed his hand over his face. She knew that he was worried and nervous; she wasn't being herself.

But she truly had no idea how he was going to react to this news. First, he had stood off against Cheyenne; then, when he confessed that he had turned her away, she hadn't said anything about calling her. Now, he had single-handed shut down half of the work currently going on in the FBI because of Cheyenne, and it was her fault because she had called Cheyenne in the first place. Yes, Don had mellowed since talking to a therapist and even more so since his stabbing, but Cheyenne had been able to snap him out of it and make him angry. When she told Don about Cheyenne, a look of confusion momentarily crossed Don's face before it transitioned into anger. She really wanted to know what he was thinking.

At first, Don didn't know who Cheyenne could be, but it was only a moment before he recalled that Agent Lynn's first name was Cheyenne. After that first initial shock, the anger and betrayal hit him. Why hadn't she told him that she was the one that called in Agent Lynn? That would have explained why she was at the crime scene and would make it a little more understandable why she was so angry. Since she had shown up at the scene, he hadn't even thought about calling Agent Mihailov's superior agent; how could she know if she was ever going to get a call?

"Wait. You called Agent Lynn by her first name. Do you know her?"

Liz looked down at the table. "I worked with her when I was worked in Narcotics a couple of years ago. We become good friends so when we needed a translator I gave her a call assuming that she had already been notified since she was Agent Mihailov's superior. I didn't know that she hadn't been."

Don's mind was reeling. So he knew why she was there, but he still didn't understand why she was so angry about Mihailov's murder. It was like she was somehow personally connected with him more than he was just being his superior agent. He really had no evidence to support that feeling, but he still couldn't shake it. There was something that didn't feel right about Cheyenne Lynn.

* * *

It looks as if the next one is going to be a long one. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone that has been giving me comments on the story and have started following it. Y'all are awesome!


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry about the wait for this one. It took me a couple of tries to get it right. I'm a rewriter.

As always, I don't own Numb3rs though I sometimes wished I did so I could meet the actors. ;)

Any comments, reviews, or critics are always welcome, and I thank everyone that has given me one so far. Y'all are awesome as is everyone that has favorited the story. Seriously, I never expected such a wonderful outcome for this story. Thanks to everyone.

* * *

Robin walked in soon after Liz had confessed to calling Agent Lynn, and Don showed her to the conference room. Liz was still there looking thoughtful, but she quickly took a seat when she saw them coming. Her eyes were clinched as if she was worried about something, and Don had a pretty good idea that it somehow involved the lead agent of the Linguistics department.

Robin looked angry and disappointed. Whatever she was going to tell the team didn't make her happy. Though he knew that it was somehow involved in the case she was working, he didn't know any details; she had been remarkably tight-lipped about this one, which was unusual for her. She usually loved talking to him about work. It really didn't bother him that she couldn't talk about it; that was understandable. But he did have a problem with the amount of time that it caused her to stay at her office. Lately, she was spending many of her lunches, dinners, and nights there.

The rest of the team filled into the office quietly and reserved, Colby and David more so than Nikki who Don was nearly convinced didn't know how to be quiet or reserved. It was like they could feel the tension between Don and Liz and the anger that was brought in by Robin, even Nikki appeared more subdued and apprehensive than usual.

Once everyone was settled in, Robin pulled up some pictures on the plasma. They all looked like basic surveillance photos of men standing outside of abandoned warehouses and shabby storefronts; all of the men appeared to be Russian with tattoos and guns of various sorts.

"I've been working on a Rico case to bring down the Russian mob," Robin said turning back to the group. "Agent Mihailov was my translator." She appeared to be very upset, and now Don knew why. Everyone knew the Russian mob's reputation; they were brutal and merciless. Don was almost sure that Robin was somehow feeling responsible for his death, and all he wanted to do was to get up wrap his arms around her and tell her that it wasn't. This was not the time or the place, however.

Liz spoke up at that moment cutting Robin off. "Why didn't you use Agent Lynn? She's Mihailov's superior and the better translator." Don looked at her. She seemed okay; she had pushed the feelings from their earlier conversation away for the time being. She was just asking the question to clear up some questions that she had about the case; she wasn't trying to cover for her friend, not yet anyway.

Robin nodded at the question more in response than to signal acquiescence. "At first, Agents Lynn and Mihailov were on the case since both of them work best when together, but there was a leak."

"A leak?" Liz asked, and Don started to see her defenses and anger start to raise. Don was starting to wonder why she was so protective of a woman she hadn't worked with in almost two years and then only for a few weeks. There was something about this that didn't seem right to him; Liz seemed very close to Agent Lynn, closer than the amount of time together then apart than Don thought was possible. There was something more to their relationship than what was readily evident.

Robin seemed to pick up on the defensive attitude that Liz was giving out and started giving out one of her own. The tension in the room started to build again, and it was causing Colby and David to start shifting in their seats and look at each other suspiciously. Don knew that they were unconsciously making a plan about what to do about the situation or what not to do. Sometimes, Don wished that he had that close of a relationship with someone on the job, but he was the boss. He had to keep enough of a distance between him and his people to effectively be able to give orders.

"Yes," Robin answered at first then decided to continue. "Information about possible locations was being leaked. When those places were searched, they were clean except for the bodies of the workers. There was an extensive search into everyone that was involved, and it all came back to them. We couldn't pinpoint for sure which one of them was the source so we tried just one."

"And you choose Mihailov? Why? He's a Russian native with family still back in Russia; Cheyenne was born and raised in America. Isn't it more likely that Mihailov was the leak?" Liz was getting extremely defensive, and Don's suspicions were becoming stronger and stronger as the conversation was continuing. But she wasn't out of control yet, and Robin was holding her own. Besides, he had a good idea that he would learn more if he let Liz go than just shut her down now.

"A basic investigation showed that Agent Lynn has had several large transfers into her account from an off-shore account. An investigation into her was just starting when Agent Mihailov was murdered." Robin turned back to the screen as if she wanted to continue to talk to them about her case, but Colby and Nikki had different ideas.

"So you think that she could be selling information to the Russian mob and killed Mihailov?" Colby asked with an air of understanding. Don could understand what he was thinking given his history; he himself was a spy for two years. If they were dealing with a spy, Colby's history and experience could definitely help them catch her.

But it wasn't Colby or Agent Lynn that Don was worried about just now; it was Liz. He was keeping his eye on her, and when the supposition that Agent Lynn was working for the Russian mob and killed Agent Mihailov was said, she seemed absolutely shocked. However, she was quickly getting over it.

"That sounds like motive," Nikki chimed in. She was her usual "let's go get them" self. She was already to drag Agent Lynn into interrogation and squeeze a confession out of her, but Don knew that there was another thing that he had to take care of first, namely Liz.

"You guys can't possibly think that Cheyenne would sell information to the Russians," she said as she stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "She learned Russian so that she could take down the mob!"

"Liz, can I speak to you?" he said then he walked out of the conference room and held the door open for Liz. It took her a moment to convince herself to walk out of the door with him instead of staying and continuing her argument, but eventually she stood up and followed Don out of the door.

* * *

Liz sat there listening to Robin's debrief of her case and felt her heart skip beats. Despite all that she was hearing, it wasn't making any sense. She knew Cheyenne, and she would never trade anything to the Russian mob. Cheyenne was far from a girl scout, but usually her bad side was directed at the bad guys or those that got in her way.

As the team talked about the possibility of Cheyenne being bought by the Russian mob, Liz flashed back to the night that Cheyenne had lost her partner. It was a raid that went wrong. Cheyenne, her partner, Liz, and another agent were pinned down separated from their vehicles and radios. There were bullets flying all over the place. It was a good chance that none of them were going to make it out; in fact, it was more than just a good chance. She was sure she was going to die; then Cheyenne and her partner looked at each other and nodded. She knew that look; Cheyenne and her partner had a way of communicating without talking. Then Cheyenne made her way over to the other agent and Liz and told them that when she and her partner made their move to run for the car and request back up.

She never learned the details of what happened after that. Liz and the other agent ran to the car and called back up and then were pinned down once again. No matter how hard she tried; she couldn't get back to where Cheyenne and her partner were. They had attracted most of the bullets when she ran to the car, but then the bullets started back at them again. It was only when backup arrived that she was able to make it back to where Cheyenne and her partner had held their positions. Cheyenne's partner was dead, and Cheyenne should have been. Her vest had stopped three bullets and another had grazed by her head.

The raid was against a Russian mob cache, and the cache had more guards and automatic weapons than intelligence had told them. After the shooting, Cheyenne took her out for a drink, but she was different. She confessed that she needed to go out for drinks, or she would be going after the mob bosses with nothing more than her duty weapon. She told Liz that she wanted to take them down, but she couldn't do it from Narcotics anymore. Losing her partner devastated her even though she didn't let anyone see it; Liz knew that she didn't know what to do with herself.

It wasn't until after she stood up, slammed her hands on the table, and made her declaration that Cheyenne couldn't have be the leak that the flashback stopped. By then, it was already too late. The entire team was looking at her like she had grown another head, Robin looked confused and set back like she didn't know what to do, and Don… Don looked as if she just confirmed something that he had been worried about. She wanted to sit back down in her chair and pretend that it had never happened; that was what would have been what was best for herself and Cheyenne. Defending Cheyenne if she was a suspected traitor and murderer would hurt her own career, and Cheyenne wouldn't want her to hurt her own career, especially not for Cheyenne.

"Liz, can I speak with you?" Don asked then walked towards the door and held it open for her. Her mind was reeling. She didn't know what she was going to do or say. She couldn't just come out and talk about what had happened; it didn't prove anything. But she couldn't let herself be taken off this case. If they were all going to just ignore the other suspects and focus on Cheyenne, then someone needed to follow up on those other leads until they found proof that Cheyenne was innocent. So she walked out of the door with Don.

Don took her just far enough away from the door that the others couldn't see them before he turned to her and asked her what was going on. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say so she hesitated, but Don just stared at her expecting her to say something.

"I told you I worked with her while I was in Narcotics," she said just to get the words going. "Just before she transferred out, there was a raid against the Russian mob that went bad, and her partner was killed in the firefight."

She wanted that to be enough to convince Don, but she could tell that it wasn't. He was still looking at her suspiciously as if he was trying to judge how close she was to Cheyenne and just how far she would go to protect her, and that suspicion hurt. But she couldn't blame Don, even she could see how her actions could be read as slightly suspicious. She was defending a murder suspect; if the case brought the team to Cheyenne, then they were obligated to investigate. She just hoped that Cheyenne could handle the heat without exploding.

Don's thoughts kept going back to when Colby had first tried to keep Dwayne Carter out of their investigation, and he saw the same cornered, confused look on Liz's face. Yeah, Colby had turned out to be one of the good guys, but Don was worried that Liz might try to do the same thing, try to keep her friend out of a murder investigation. It wasn't something that he wanted to tackle. Yes, they had been separated for a while, and he was very happy with Robin. However, there was history with Liz, history that involved their relationship and the time he had trained her at Quantico, and he didn't want to arrest another member of his team. He wasn't sure he could take it.

"We have to investigate her no matter what," he said to Liz, gently. He was sure yelling at her was the wrong way to go here despite the fact that he wanted to. "If you can't look at this objectively, then I'll remove you from the case." He search her face to see how she would take this news, and he saw conflicting emotions cross it.

She wondered if she could look at this case objectively. They were calling the woman that had saved her life a murderer, and she wasn't sure that she could handle that. On the other hand, she was an agent; it was her job to look at any investigation objectively. Besides, Cheyenne would want her to continue the investigation no matter what lead it gave her. "I can do it. I promise; I was just startled in there is all."

Don nodded his head. He had his doubts about how well she could handle it, but he trusted Liz. She was a good agent. Then again, it had been the same with Colby. He wanted to give her another chance like he had with him, but he was worried that the more information that they surfaced the more Liz would be tempted to help her friend. If he did let her stay on the case though, he could keep a better eye on her. "Okay," he answered, "but I don't want you to interact with Agent Lynn until the investigation is over. If I have any suspicions, I will pull you off this case, understood?"

"Yes," she said as she made her way back towards the conference room. When she walked inside, she could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she didn't let it faze her. She tried to act as if everything was fine, but she wasn't sure how well she pulled it off. Everyone was giving her suspicious looks, especially Robin who questioned Don with her eyes. Liz knew that they would be asking her questions as soon as they got a chance. This was going to be a hard investigation.

Don was well aware of the looks that were being given to him and Liz when they walked back in. Robin was confused and didn't understand why he had let her back into the room; he could tell that she thought that he should take Liz off the case. He knew deep in her mind she was suspicious of his relationship with Liz, but it wasn't something that they talked about much any more. For the most part, Robin had started to trust him when it came to Agent Warner, but there would always be doubts. He understood that.

There was only a moment or two of awkward silence before Robin continued what she had been saying before. Apparently, the investigation into Agent Lynn's accounts hadn't shown any definite answers yet, but they had only just started when Agent Mihailov was killed. The investigation had turned up several front companies the mob was using for the illegal activities, but they were still trying to catch the mob in the act. Shortly after Agent Lynn was removed from the case for possibly leaking information, Mihailov asked for a week off to take his wife home to visit her dying mother; it was approved.

"All right, everyone," Don said as he stood back up and looked at his team. "David, Colby, why don't you look into Agent Lynn's recent activities? Nikki, start running down her contacts. Liz…" Here he paused; he wasn't sure what he could get Liz to do that wouldn't make her actively investigate her friend.

"I'll pull her phone and employee records for you," Liz said as she got up and walked out of the room. Colby, David, and Nikki soon followed after her. Don ran his hand over his face. This investigation was pulling him from so many directions, but he decided to put it all outside of him for a moment so he could talk with Robin.

"Are you sure that it'll be okay if you leave her on the case?" she asked him as she stepped closer to him. Her eyes were fixed on Liz while she talked to Nikki at her desk. Robin looked doubtful about this entire situation.

"She's a good agent, but I plan on keeping a close eye on her," he said as she made his way closer to her. "How about you; are you okay?"

"I don't know, Don," she sighed as she leaned up against the table. "I just wanted to know who killed him so I can figure out if it was my fault or not." She looked fine, but her eyes betrayed her. The corners of her eyes were crinkled, and Don knew that meant she was having problems with this.

He moved over to her and began to rub her upper arms to comfort her. As he looked directing into her eyes, he said, "You didn't kill him, Robin." He hoped that she would take some of the reassurance that he was offering; he didn't like to see her upset especially when it wasn't her fault.

For a moment, she just sat there looking at him with doubts in her eyes. Finally, she moved off the table she had been resting against and started to move towards the door; there she looked back at him and said, "How do you know if you don't know who killed him and why?" Before he could come up with an answer, she walked out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

I know; two chapters in one week. I'm on a roll! But don't expect this to happen often. Most of this chapter was intended to go in the last chapter which delayed the last chapter and advanced this chapter. That coupled with a night where the story wouldn't let me sleep. So please, don't expect this to happen often. Sleep is important.

As always, I don't own any of the characters. I don't know who owns them exactly, but unfortunately it's not me. Also, I love reviews so if you feel like it I would be more than happy to hear it no matter what you're opinion is. Y'all are awesome, BTW.

* * *

Liz knew that the rest of the team would come up to her and ask questions about her actions in the conference room eventually, but she had hoped that they would, at least, give her enough time to get back to her desk. Though not completely surprised that Nikki was the first, she was surprised that she followed her all the way from the conference room to her desk asking questions, questions that Liz didn't want to answer right now.

"What happened in there?" was the first question out of Nikki's mouth. She was being her usual straight-forward, slightly-combative self. "Since when do you try to protect a traitor?"

"Nikki, I don't want to talk about it right now, okay?" she said as she sat down in her chair at her desk, but Nikki didn't let up. She knew that Nikki was just worried about her, but talking about what had her so bothered was not what she wanted to do right now.

"I'm just saying that all I see is you standing up for this person, and I don't understand it," Nikki said leaning against Liz's desk and folding her arms, a stance Liz knew meant that she wasn't going to leave until she got an answer.

With a sigh, Liz admitted, "She saved my life once by nearly sacrificing her own." She then turned her full attention to her computer and completely ignored Nikki and the rest of the team. She needed to be alone with her thoughts for a while.

* * *

The cubicles and desks on the linguistics department's level of the FBI building were pushed off to the side but still left the doors to the conference rooms and hallways free. In the center of the floor, the entire linguistics department sat on the floor. Some of them sat on mats; others had moved desks to lean against or chairs to sit on. The people were of various ethnic groups, but each was dressed in their own native dress for morning.

When Don walked in, he paused stunned. He had been expecting picket signs and general protest over the fact that he wasn't telling them about Agent Mihialov's murder, but he was startled to find that it wasn't the case. They were actually morning the loss of their teammate. It seemed that they were going around the circle each telling a story about Mihialov; of course, he couldn't be sure since they were each doing it in their native tongues. Some of them had alcohol; others didn't.

It took him a moment to take in the scene, but it seemed to be just enough so that Agent Lynn could notice him. He was just about to move towards the circle when he noticed her standing up. She looked completely different than she had last night. Today, she was wearing a black pants suit with a white shirt and black tie, and her hair was pulled behind her head with hairspray and bobby pins. She looked very professional and even walked professional.

She smiled as she made her way up to him, but it wasn't a sarcastic smile. It seemed genuine, which made Don nervous. He had been thinking about her as if she was his enemy, and because of that, now that she was acting like his friend, he was suspicious, more so than before. She didn't appear to be angry.

"Agent Eppes," she whispered when she was closer, "it's good to see you again. How can I help you?'

The change between how she had come across last night and how she was acting today made him question his assumptions about her. Maybe she wasn't the angry, emotion-driven woman that he had assumed she was, but the idea crossed his mind that she may be something far more dangerous, a manipulator. It seemed that the thought crossed his face the same time it crossed his mind because Agent Lynn's eyebrow went up as if she was asking what he was thinking. The interesting thing was that it felt as if he had done the same thing to her recently.

"I just wanted to interview you and your team to get an idea about who Agent Mihailov was and who could want him dead," he said taking a step towards the group.

Agent Lynn stepped up beside him and looked at her group. "Once Raji is done with his memory, I'll make an announcement. You should be able to take anyone you want to; I made sure those that worked closest to him went first." Her voice was flat and controlled as if this was an every day occurrence, and her face betrayed no hint of worry which bothered Don. Either she was a very convincing liar or she had a complete change of heart since last night; Don doubted the last one.

Slowly turning towards her, Don said, "Actually, I'd like to start with you." She didn't look surprised at his request, but neither was she completely void of a response. She smiled at him as if that was the most natural thing, as if he had asked her nothing more than if she would translate something for him.

"Of course," she consented. "Let me just tell my second where I'll be, and I'll join you on your floor." She started moving away from him towards the group as if she expected him to go back to his floor without her.

"I'll just wait and go with you," he responded and waited for her reaction. For a second, surprise fled across her eyes despite the fact that the rest of her face stayed the same. If he hadn't have been as close or paying as much attention as he was, he would have missed it. That second was the only implication of her hidden internal emotional state because once it was gone her face was back to the unassuming smile and a nod of her head to signify that she heard him

She walked over to an Arab man sitting to the left of where she had been sitting and whispered in his ear. The man looked at Don critically and whispered something back at her. She laughed and whispered something back before making her way back over to Don.

"What did he say?" he asked as they waited for the elevator. She was no longer carrying the smile and had put on an expression of neutrality. It was an expression of complete lack of emotion.

"He said that shirt looks good on you," she said without looking at him and carrying her neutral expression into her voice. If he had eyes in the back of his head, he would have seen her smirk slightly when he turned to take another look at the man.

* * *

While Don was gone, Nikki made her way over to Colby and David's desks; she didn't even try to cover herself with a reason to go over there since Liz was still entirely focused on her computer screen and Robin was pacing unfocused near the interrogation rooms. Colby and David looked to her as she walked up and leaned against David's desk. Colby looked at her with down-turned, concerned eyes. He was worried about Liz; she wasn't acting like herself.

"Did you find anything out from her?" David asked with a tone to his voice that told Colby that he was just as worried.

Nikki shrugged her shoulders half-heartedly. "She didn't say much," she admitted. "All she would say is that Agent Lynn saved her life once by nearly losing her own." When he heard that, Colby looked at David, and from the look on David's face, Colby knew that he was thinking the same thing; Agent Lynn was Liz's Dwayne Carter.

Everything was making so much more sense to him now. Agent Lynn was guilt tripping Liz into helping and covering for her with the reminder that she had saved Liz's life. All of this hit Colby in a second, which was just enough for him to spring out of his chair and start to make his way over to Liz. He reached Liz's desk just as Don and Agent Lynn exited from the elevator.

In an instant, Don noticed the stiff way that Colby held himself as he talked with Liz and how stiff Liz held herself as she tried to ignore him and focus on her computer screen. He realized that Colby must have found out some of the details of Liz's relationship with Agent Lynn and wanted to stop Liz before she went down the road that he could have and, sort of, did. If there was one thing that Don could say about Colby, he was really cared about the people that he worked with despite his hard army exterior. He remembered a time when Colby took Charlie out to the middle of nowhere to force/allow Charlie to talk about an incident where he was almost killed. Now, Colby was trying to stop Liz from making a mistake he almost did.

As he and Agent Lynn walked past Liz's desk however, she handed him some folders. He assumed that it was Agent Lynn's phone and personnel records that she said she would get for him. Liz didn't look or interact with Agent Lynn, and Agent Lynn didn't look or interact with Liz. Don wasn't sure if they were arguing over something on this case or if they were falling back on a previous pact if something like this were to happen. "Thanks, Liz," Don said but didn't open the files just yet.

"I'll get myself some coffee and wait in one of the interrogation rooms," Agent Lynn said as she took a detour into the kitchen area and Don followed. "Do you have one you would prefer to use or can I just choose one?" Don must have looked as puzzled as he felt because she looked at him inquisitively. "Well, you do want time to read those fills, don't you?" She poured coffee into a cup and raised it to her lips and took a sip. She didn't put any sugar or conditioner in her coffee, but she didn't pull back or acted disgusted by it even if she wasn't extremely impressed. "Y'all even have better coffee up here," she muttered as she wondered out of the room again.

She was making Don nervous by the way that she was just wondering around his office as if she owned the place. It was almost as if she had been here before, but her own office was laid out much like his own. Even still, he found it almost threatening like she was saying that she could get anywhere that he could and that she was just as respected as he was. But there was nothing that he could do about it now, he wanted to keep her calm until he and Robin started asking her questions. The one thing that he didn't know was that Robin was waiting by interrogation rooms. He could tell from Robin's facial expression that she was extremely angry, but Agent Lynn smiled the same smile that she had given him when he went down to get her.

"AUSA Robin Brooks," she said as she walked towards Robin and went to shake her hand. Robin didn't return the gesture, but Agent Lynn didn't seem to let it faze her. "It's good to see you."

"I wish I could say the same thing, Cheyenne," Robin responded through a forced smile. Don had seen that smile once before when they got information that put John Curtis' conviction until suspicion. She used that smile when she was talking with Curtis, a man that she hated because he supposedly killed a friend and coworker. Don was starting to think that there was something more between them than Robin's suspicion of Agent Lynn's reliability.

"Well, I'll just be waiting in here so you two can go over those files that Agent Warner gave Agent Eppes and come up with an attack plan," she said with a smile as she sipped her coffee and entered the interrogation room. "Don't make me wait too long though, or I might think of all the ways around any strategy that you might employ." She smiled at them once again then waltzed into the interrogation room.

Don ran his hand over his face then turned to Robin. "Do you get the sense that she's playing with us?"

Robin nodded her head. "I've gotten that feeling since I meet her." Then she turned and walked back to the conference room, and Don followed her after taking another quick look at the interrogation room door.

* * *

As soon as Don and Agent Lynn was away from Liz's desk, Colby tried to talk to Liz, but she wasn't paying any attention to him. She was entirely focused on her computer screen. "Liz," he said to get her attention. "Liz, talk to me."

"I don't want to talk, Colby," she said, continuing to type on her keyboard. There was a look on her face that he could read and understand. It was the look that said she was stuck in a hard place between the wolves and the jackals and she had no idea how to get out except to continue to creep along the wall slowly enough to keep the wolves and jackals from attacking.

"Okay, but you can't stop me from talking," Colby said as he pulled up a chair and sat close enough that he wouldn't have to talk too loud for Liz to hear him. "Even though I was working under cover, I never really wanted to turn Dwayne Carter in, and though I did, it hurt bad to put someone that I had trusted and had saved me in jail. I struggled with it for a long time. All the way from the time we originally got him to be the mole and long after I was rescued from the freighter, I felt that I had no good choice. It wasn't for months after his death that I finally convinced myself that he had chosen his fate. Even if someone saves your life, you don't owe them anything more than a pat on the back whenever you see them. Don't let Agent Lynn ruin…"

At that point, Liz turned her chair so that she was almost nose-to-nose with him. He could see anger and tears in her eyes. "Cheyenne is no Dwayne Carter, Colby; and even inferring that shows just how little you know about her. If she knew that I had yelled at all of you when you started to look into her for this murder and now I'm having problems helping you investigate her, she'd come out here and kick my ass. That's the difference between Cheyenne and Carter. Cheyenne would rather I forgot all about her saving my life; Carter never let you. And I'm not having a problem with this just because she saved me life. We were and are getting back to being very close, and I just can't separate what I know about my friend and what I'm suppose to know about a possible murderer and mole."

The fire from her eyes was gone and was replaced with confusion and self-doubt, but it had nothing to do with her belief in the innocence on her friend. It seemed to Colby that she was just having problems rectifying her job and her friendship, but she wasn't seeing the easiest opinion out of all of this. "Why don't you just step off the case? No one will think any less of you if you did; in fact, it might be the best if you say off the case so that your prejudice doesn't sink it."

Liz shook her head. "See that's the problem. All of you assume that Cheyenne's the killer, but I know that she's not. I want to stay on the case because eventually all of you are going to see that she's innocent, and then I'll have no reason to be off the case. Then again, since all of you have assumed that she's guilty, who's going to check to make sure that you're ignoring the evidence that says she's not?"

Colby looked at her confused. That was a lot of work she had just gave herself, enough work for all four of them. "Liz, that's a lot of work for you to do all by yourself…"

"And that's the reason I really need to be left alone right now, okay?" she said as she turned back to her computer effectively shutting him out again. This time, he knew that he would just be wasting his time trying to break her concentration again, but he was worried about her and scared for her. She was one of his friends, and he was worried.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked because it was the only thing that he could do for her.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry about the long wait. My mom said that she would read this and catch my spelling errors and things but never got around to it. Also, please keep in mind that no one has read it to check up on my spelling and words and so forth so please be understanding.

Also, I wanted to warn you that I have no idea when the next chapter will be up. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this month so it may not be until the beginning of December before the next chapter is done and posted. Sorry. I tend to think more about this story than what I decided to write for NaNoWriMo however so I might be able to get a chapter out before then, but I'm not making any promises.

I wanted to take the time to thank everyone that's reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting this story. I'm extremely grateful for each and every one of you; I never expected such a wonderful turn out and feedback on this story. As always, I would always love to hear anything that anyone has to say about the story, positive or negative.

As always, I don't own Numb3rs or the characters, and though I would love to write Cheyenne in or borrowing a character or two for the evening sometime, I have to admit that the writers are doing an extremely good job with the season currently. The last episode that aired on tv was the best episode ever in my opinion.

I hope that this chapter measures up to all of y'alls high expectations or, at least, doesn't completely fail.

* * *

Chapter Five

She felt like she was drowning, and she didn't know what to do about it. There was so much pain. She knew that she had gotten up this morning, gotten dressed, and drove to work, but she couldn't really remember any of it. She was working on automatic mode, and she wanted off; she wanted her life back.

* * *

Agent Lynn had her phone out and was typing on it when Don and Robin walked in. She just smiled at them, flew her fingers on her screen, and put her phone face down on the table. "Well, have you come up with an attack strategy yet?" Her face looked like what she had been wearing when Don had brought her down here, but there was something more to it that he couldn't put his finger on. It was buried deep, but not deep enough to hide it completely from her facial features. He just couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"Where were you last Wednesday between 5 and 10 pm?" Robin asked getting right down to business, but Don held back. He wanted some time to judge Agent's Lynn's reactions. He wanted to understand her a little better.

"Last Wednesday," she said as she picked up her phone again and started to mess with it, "between 5 and 10 pm." She didn't seem fazed at all by the question; she didn't seem to have any reaction. But there was something…. "I was stuck here until 7 working on some translations, then I headed over to the battered women's shelter where I volunteer. I got there around 7:30 and didn't leave until almost 3 in the morning." She looked right back at Robin with no smile and no emotion; she was maintaining a blank expression. "I could give you their contact information so you could check up on my alibi."

Don didn't think that she was lying, but she was too calm about this whole thing. Even someone being unjustly accused reacted, but she had no reaction at all. From experience, there only people who had this much confidence were sociopaths, who didn't care about what they had done and what it did to their future, and self-conceited bastards, who thought that they were too good to get caught; but he wasn't sure that she was either of those. Usually, there was some pride when such people were cornered like this, but there was nothing in the way she held herself or the way she spoke that conveyed pride.

Robin passed her a small pad of paper and a pen, and Agent Lynn wrote the name of the shelter and it's phone number down with her left hand and passed it back to her. Robin briefly looked at it before placing it on top of the stack of papers and files. She sat down in the chair across from Agent Lynn and spread the files over the table in front of her. Don could tell that she was preparing herself to try to force a confession out of Agent Lynn. "We still have a few more questions," she started.

"Okay," she said spinning the contents of her coffee cup around before drinking what was left, "is there anyway that I could get more coffee before we start?" She had a complete look of innocence on her face that made Don want to laugh out loud and forced him to consider just how innocent Agent Lynn might be. She seemed to have almost perfect control over her facial expressions, which meant that the only emotions they were likely to see where the ones that she wanted to express. Twice today he had seen or felt that he had seen something cross her face that wasn't what she wanted to show. Once he figured out the pattern of these outbreaks, he could get her to tell him exactly what she was feeling.

"Sure, ''Don said as he picked up her cup and left the room. Robin followed him, and though he couldn't see her face, he knew she was unhappy with his decision to take them out of the room. On his way to the kitchen, he passed her old cup to Nikki to get to the lab. "See if they can get any DNA off of this for me," he asked as he made him way into the kitchen.

As he was pouring another cup of coffee for Agent Lynn, Robin was leaning against a table staring at him. He could just feel the questions pointed at his back, but he didn't want to turn around and answer them yet. If there was one thing he knew about Robin though, it was that she would be stubborn enough to make him answer them. When he did turn however, he wasn't asked any questions; he just met her glare and folded arms. Apparently, she thought that he should know what she wanted to know and was just going to wait for his answer.

"She's blocking us," he said, but she didn't move. Apparently, she wanted more. "So far, I've seen her walls fail completely once, and that was only for a second. When we first walked in, I thought I saw something, but I can't be sure what it was. I wanted time to think about how those two are connected so that I could get her to open up more."

Finally, she stopped glaring at him and unfolded her arms. "Fine," she said. "You think; I'm going to go ask questions until the answers make sense." He tried to stop her as she walked out of the door, but she wouldn't let him. It seemed that she truly believed that Agent Mihailov's death was somehow her fault, and he wanted to know how to convince her that it wasn't.

For a second, he thought that she might be right about asking questions; she did know Agent Lynn better than he did. Besides, he could always think while in the interrogation room. Though he didn't want to admit it, there was something in her persistence on this case that had him worried; she was taking it very personally. But so was Agent Lynn. There had to be something going on, and from his observance of Robin's brief interaction with the woman, he knew that Robin didn't like her, maybe even hated her. He was starting to worry about Robin's neutrality when it came to Agent Lynn's innocence. It wasn't that he believed that the woman had nothing to do with Mihailov's death, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Robin was convinced of Lynn's guilt no matter what the evidence said. So he followed her.

* * *

At first, Nikki didn't understand or like the fact that they were switching partners for this, but David didn't seem to mind. She knew that Colby and David were tight, tight enough that rumors circulated around the office about just how close the two agents were. She had to admit; they were an odd pair. Colby was a small town country boy with conservative views and military background, and David grew up in the middle of a big city's bad neighborhood and usually voted liberal. Though she didn't quite understand how or why the two got along so well, she had to admit that she had never seen a tighter partnership. She hated the fact that she might be a factor in their temporary separation; she herself would rather have worked with Liz, her own partner.

"David," she said settling down temporarily at Colby's desk (Colby was sitting at her own), "are you okay with this?" His brows crinkled like he didn't understand what she was saying. "You know, with us switching partners and working against each other."

He appeared to understand her a little better and moved his chair a little closer to hers. "Colby wants to help Liz," he said looking over at the two just as Liz leaned over to show Colby some papers. He was worried about Liz and how investigating her friend was affecting her, and he knew that Colby had the same feeling as he did. He was happy that Colby had desired to work with her; at least, he wouldn't have to worry that Liz would try to cover for her friend. "If we're competing with them, it looks like they're getting ahead of us," he said with a smile towards Nikki.

Though she was worried about this entire situation, Nikki was grateful that David had lightened the mood by making a joke even if it didn't completely allay her worries. She was worried about Liz. She was worried about what working against each other would do to their team. She was just plain worried, but she went back to work.

* * *

Back in the interrogation room, Don handed Agent Lynn her coffee. She smiled and thanked him politely. As she raised the cup to her lips, she chuckled. It was a short, dismissive chuckle that Don didn't trust; it was almost like she was laughing at him. This didn't make lessen his suspicions of her. "Want to check my DNA against something?" she queried with a sly smile. His shock must have been written on his face because she chuckled again. "I left a small indention on the rim of the last cup, and you don't need a cup for my fingerprints. All FBI agents have their prints on file," she explained once again blocking out her emotional responses. "I told you, Agent Eppes. I can out smart you. AUSA Brooks here can attest to that fact."

None of this alleviated the suspicions that he had for her; in fact, they only deepened them. He was happy that he had followed Robin back in here; now he had several questions of his own. There was only one reason for her to make her cup so she would know if they took it, she assumed that they would want to test if for something. If she assumed that they would want to link her to the scene, then she thought that they would have some reason for her to be there. She knew that somewhere they would come across a reason for her to kill him; he wanted to know what she thought they're reasons to suspect her were. "Why do you think we would want to test your cup?" he asked trying to make his voice sound naive and innocent as if this had never even crossed him mind.

"You obviously read my transcript of Agent Warner and Betancourt's interview of his wife or had someone go out and redo it," she said letting nothing show on her face. This was fact to her, and nothing more. Or just what she wanted them to think, Don reminded himself. Of course, she wasn't going to come right out and admit that she had killed him because she was a Russian spy; as she kept reminding them, she was too smart for that. If she was guilty, she would try to weasel her way out of this.

"Why would the wife think that you had something to do with her husband's death?" Robin injected. She was in prosecutor mode; her back was straight and there was a little strut to her step. She enjoyed her work and cornering people into admitting that they had done something wrong or catching them in a lie, but most of all she liked to win. It seemed that Agent Lynn was going to make it easy on them and just tell them incriminating evidence against her without too much hassle.

"She thinks Viktor and I were having an affair," she said without preamble. She acted as if it this wasn't something to be worried about and was perfectly normal. Never mind the fact that it gave both her and the wife motive to kill him; never mind that having an affair with a fellow agent wasn't looked upon favorably.

"When was it broken off?" Don asked knowingly. It was a story he had heard so many times before. When someone breaks it off, the other flies into a rage and kills them. It wasn't a pleasant story, but it was better than treason.

"The affair?" Agent Lynn proposed before taking a drink of her coffee. She didn't appear nervous at all, but she also didn't look as if she was in anyway concerned about what she was about to say. "As far as I know, it wasn't," she answered him question and didn't appear to be lying about it. She wasn't acting like a woman scorned or betrayed, but Don reminded himself that she was quite capable of hiding whatever she was feeling. However, she wasn't using the blank expression that she had been using before. She was acting truthful, unhappy about the truth but telling it nonetheless.

"You two were still seeing each other when he was killed?" Don asked but didn't try to hide the fact that he didn't believe her.

"No, of course not. Viktor was having an affair; it just wasn't with me," she responded. Once again, she didn't appear to be lying. "When his wife found out he was having an affair, he didn't know what to do. If she had found out the truth, she would have divorced him for sure so I agreed to let him tell his wife that he was having an affair with me."

Don wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of her story. Who in their right mind would say that they were having an affair when they weren't? Besides, what would allowing him to say that he was having an affair with her help him with his wife. "If he wasn't having an affair with you, who was he having an affair with?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Viktor didn't like to talk about him."

For a moment, Don was stunned. Out of everything that he was expecting her to say, this wasn't one of them. The funny thing was that most of what she had said, he had been prepared for; it was that last word that threw him for a loop. It wasn't something that he was expecting to hear.

"Agent Mihailov was seeing a guy?" Robin asked first. She looked just as surprised as Don felt, and she had known Mihailov. It seemed that Mihailov's sexual preferences weren't generally known, and it seemed that he preferred it that way.

"He called him his soul mate," Agent Lynn said with a chuckle, "the partner that he should have had instead of the wife that he got stuck with." She seemed dismissive of the whole thing like the entire idea of soul mates was an insane idea, but that had nothing to do with their investigation. Don wasn't sure about her story; if Agent Mihailov was gay, then why would he have married a woman? If he had fallen in love with someone else, why didn't he want a divorce? It just wasn't making sense to Don; there will still many holes in her story.

* * *

"Hey, Colby, look at this," Liz said bringing over some papers to his desk and holding them out to him. She had finally found something that she thought could be something after looking for hours; this could prove that Cheyenne wasn't guilty. She knew that Mrs. Mahailov thought that her husband was having an affair with Cheyenne from her interview with the woman, but she didn't believe it. Cheyenne had strict rules about not dating fellow agents, and she didn't like to date. The most that she ever had was one-night stands, and that was the way that she liked it. Cheyenne was her own woman and didn't want to be tied down to one guy.

"What am I looking at?" he asked scanning them. They appeared to be financial papers, but they didn't have Cheyenne Lynn's name on them; they were for Agent Viktor Mihailov. He didn't know how Liz had gotten a copy of Mihailov's credit card statement, but he decided that he didn't want to ask. He was scanning it, and he noticed that there were several charges to a nearby hotel on it. Mostly at the same time every week, expect for the week he died. "Never mind," he said handing her the papers back, "I wonder why he wasn't at the hotel the week he died."

Liz smiled. "I was wondering why he was there at all."

_Good point_, Colby thought. Maybe Agent Lynn wasn't the mole after all. "What do you say? Field trip?" he smiled back and grabbing his sports jacket. On their way out, they stopped to let David know where they were headed in case Don should ask for them. As they were waiting for the elevator, Liz looked back at the interrogation room and noticed Cheyenne looking at her; as soon as she was making eye contact with Liz, she raised an eyebrow. Liz groaned.

"What?" Colby asked turning to look where Liz had been looking, but all he saw was Agent Lynn turning her attention back to Don as he asked her a question.

"Nothing," Liz answered. "It's just when I get my best friend out of the hot water she's found herself in, I'll have some questions coming my way that I'm not particularly looking forward to."


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry about the long wait. I really had some issues with my writers block and inspiration, y'know the normal things that people say when they know they've been slacking.

I love all comments. Hate the story, tell me. Love the story, tell me. But please give me reasons. The longer your comments the more I love them, but I'll take whatever I can get. Y'all are awesome!

As always, I don't own Numb3rs; don't want to make any money off of this. I just enjoy writing it and torturing the characters. ;)

* * *

If he trusted what Agent Lynn was telling him (which he wasn't sure if he did), Don knew that Mihailov was having an affair and that his wife would have had more of a problem with him having an affair with a man than with a woman he worked with. Sure, he understood how a woman would be more upset that her husband was having an affair with a man than with a woman, but it seemed to him that it had to be more complicated than that if Mihailov's wife would kick him out if he was sleeping with a man rather than with a woman. To Don, it didn't really make sense that she would care that much about the gender of the "other woman."

Apparently, Agent Lynn could see that he was having difficulty believing what she was saying because she sighed and leaned forward. "The thing you have to understand about Anya," then she paused when she noticed that both he and Robin were confused about the name. "Anya is Viktor's wife…." She looked like she was offended that they didn't know the first name of Agent Mihailov's wife.

"Anyway, she doesn't mind that Viktor was stepping out," Agent Lynn continued. "She would mind if he was stepping out with a man and that he was in love with him. Viktor used to be quite a ladies' man back in Russia, and from what I've gathered from what little he spoke about his past, that was the reason they decided to move to America. As long as he continues to come home to her, she feels that she is better than whoever the other woman is and that is about the only thing she cares about. Though Viktor doesn't love her, she loves him unconditionally and thinks, if she has to let him sleep with other woman to keep him that is a small price to have him.

"The problem was that Viktor was in love with a man," she said emphasizing the words "love" and "man." "So I offered to let him say that I was having the affair with him because if his wife kicked him out, I would have to let him stay with me, and I might never be able to get him to leave."

"I thought you two were really close friends," Robin spoke up, and though she was still smiling, Don knew that she didn't mean it nicely. She was trying really hard to break holes into Agent Lynn's story, and Don was starting to worry about her. He had yet to get a good answer from her why she was so hostile to Agent Lynn, and it was starting to bother him.

"We were, but I like my privacy. I like going home and knowing that I'm the only person there. If his wife kicked him out, I would let him come and stay with me, and there are a handful of people I could say that about in the world. Most people I consider friends will never see the inside of my home let alone be able to stay there. I'm a very private person," Agent Lynn said in the same neutral tone and facial expressions, but Don noticed that her back seemed to slightly straighten when Robin started talking about Viktor staying at her place.

Hoping that he had just found a hole in Agent Lynn's armor, Don stepped in. "Do you not like talking about your home life, Agent Lynn?" he queried. For the first time in a while, Agent Lynn turned her full attention towards him. Usually it was split between Robin, him, and what was going on out in the bullpen. Though there wasn't anything specific that had changed about her facial features or overall stance, Don got the feeling that she was glaring at him.

"That's because I have no home life, Agent Eppes," she said rather neutrally but annunciation every word. "Even when I'm not at the office, I'm rarely there, but I'm sure that you would understand that since you are rarely at your own home if the rumors are right. How many nights a week do you go over to your brother's or your girlfriends'?" Though she didn't seem to be lying, she was definitely defensive; she was almost back to the level that she had been at last night. Don knew that he was making headway, even though he was uncomfortable with her knowing about how often he went to Charlie's or Robin's.

He was about to ask another question when there was a knock on the door. He looked to see Nikki waving at him. Apparently, she had found something that she thought was useful to the interrogation.

* * *

Nikki was looking over Agent Lynn's financial records when she noticed something odd. According to the files, Agent Lynn had no place to sleep. She didn't pay a mortgage or rent, and there were no deeds of ownership under her name. There were also no records of her ever being married so it shouldn't be under another name. She had to live with someone then. However, she didn't seem to have any vehicles under her name either, which was oddly suspicious. Though the city had public transportation, it couldn't go everywhere, and anyone without a vehicle really couldn't go anywhere.

"Hey, David," she said turning towards him so that he could see what she found. "What do you think of this?"

He looked it over for a minute or two but didn't seem that impressed by it. Then his head jerked and his eyes squinted. "She has three savings accounts?" he questioned.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but that's not what I thought was weird." So he went back to looking at the paper, but after a few minutes when he hadn't said anything, she started to become annoyed and decided to give him a hint. "What don't you see?"

He looked at the sheet a little longer before his narrowed again. "According to this, she has no residence or vehicle."

"Weird, huh?" she asked.

He nodded. "I think you should get this to Don and Robin right away,' he said handing her the paper back and then turning back to his computer.

* * *

Meanwhile, Liz and Colby were walking into the lobby of a typical Days Inn. Walking up to the registration desk, they flashed their badges. "I'm Agent Warner of the FBI," Liz told the woman behind the desk, "and this is Agent Granger."

"How can I help you?" the lady asked with wide eyes. Liz noticed the name Natalia was on her nametag. She seemed a little scared of them for some reason, and though Liz thought it was probably due to the fact that she wasn't use to meeting federal agents, it caught Liz's attention. The woman just seemed so afraid.

"Yes," Colby spoke up when Liz didn't answer right away. "We were wondering if you could tell us the last time this man was here." He held a picture up so that the woman could take a look at it. She took it, and though a flicker of recognition ran across the woman's face, it was closely followed by extreme fear.

"No," the woman responded, but her voice was shaking so she paused to clear her throat, "I don't remember seeing him before." She seemed very nervous, and for the first time, there was a hint of an accent to her voice. Her eyes kept shifting to her watch or to the door.

"His name's Viktor Mihailov," Liz said with a quick glance at Colby, and when he made eye contact with her, she knew that he was noticing the same things and having the same questions that she was. Namely, why was she scared and what was she hiding. "If you should check for us, that would be great."

"Oh, of course," the woman said as she turned to the computer. Liz wasn't sure if it was normal or not, but she had to use the backspace bar and retype a lot. She seemed really nervous to Liz, and Liz was sure that Colby could see it too. She hoped that this woman had something that would help the investigation.

* * *

Don looked over the papers that Nikki had given him, and he could see that she had been right that Agent Lynn had no place of residency according to her financial statement. Flipping the pages as he turned, he sat down in a chair across from her. A quick glance told him that her facial features hadn't changed, but it looked as if her shoulders were slightly tenser. "It says here that you don't own a home or pay rent," he said looking back up at her.

She blinked once then said very levelly, "You pulled my financial records?"

"Yes, we did," Robin piped in, and Don could see in her eyes that she was hoping that this was going to push Agent Lynn over the side and make her angry. Though he could see that they were making her angry, he wasn't sure that this would break her. Instead of allowing her emotions to show in her speech, she was removing them even more. Something told him that it was more likely that she was going to shut down completely than to open up more.

Agent Lynn picked up her phone and started typing something. A second or two later, she levelly stated, "I don't understand how my financial records figure into this case. Ergo," she said suddenly annunciating her words, "there must be something more to this than I know about. Therefore, I'm not saying another word until you tell me what it is." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair staring at them with a look that reminded him of his mother when she found her favorite vase was broken and was waiting for him or his brother to confess to it.

Internally, he sighed. Just a moment ago, she was willing to answer any question that they asked and to fill them into the details on any aspect of Mihailov's life that she was privy to, but now, she was refusing to say anything. They could no longer get any direct information from her, but the fact that she was unwilling to talk about her financial record told him lots of things, mostly the fact that she was hiding something in it.

"Okay," he said picking up the papers and walking out of the door, holding it for Robin to follow. For a second to two, she didn't follow him and continued to stare at Agent Lynn, but she eventually turned and followed him out of the room. He knew that there was nothing else that he could get out of Agent Lynn, but he had a feeling that Robin didn't agree with him.

* * *

Natalia turned back to Liz and Colby after taking a moment to look at the computer monitor. For a second after pulling something up on the screen, she seemed extremely scared, worried, and sad. Then with a sigh, she turned to them and said, "Mr. Mihailov is a regular customer. He is here every Friday night except for the most recent one."

"He's here every Friday night, and you have no idea who he is," Liz asked. She knew that there was something that this woman was hiding, but what it could be Liz wasn't sure. Agent Mihailov's death hadn't been announced yet to anyone that was not working on the case or his wife. So there was no way that she would be worried that she was going to end up like him, unless she had known about it beforehand from the killer. "We can protect you," Liz said laying her hand on top of the woman's.

The woman pulled her hand back as if Liz's had burned her, and she looked completely terrified. "I know nothing," she stuttered out. "I will get my manager for you," she said as she nearly ran into the backroom.

"She's definitely hiding something," Colby said as the manager walked out of the backroom and greeted them. "We need your security footage from last week." Out of the corner of his vision, he saw a male figure peek around the corner.

* * *

He knew that Agent Lynn was hiding something, but he couldn't figure out what. He thought she drove a bike, but he had never seen it so, even if he wished, he couldn't go down to the parking lot and find it only by sight. Since there was no record of her owning a bike, there was really no way for him to hunt down her bike to found out who owned whatever she was driving.

As he was contemplating what he could do about her bike, he saw Charlie walk out of the elevator. Charlie… even though he could feel the twinge in the back of his head that always occurred since the whole wedding thing started, he was happy to see him. After working with Charlie for almost six years, he knew that when he had no idea where to go next in a case Charlie would. Seeing his brother involved complicated emotions, but he didn't have time to consider that fact.

He started walking towards Charlie, but David beat him there. David was just starting to fill Charlie in when Don walked up. It seemed that David and Nikki were hoping that Charlie had some great ideas about tracking where Agent Lynn was getting her money. Apparently, it was coming in from some European bank, but they couldn't get a more definite location.

Charlie was just retreating to his workroom when an imposing figure in a dark gray suit walked out of the elevator with a briefcase in his hand. It was readily evident to Don that the man was a lawyer. He walked like he owned the place, as if he had been here many times. He had an oval face, had gray eyes, and gray speckled black hair. If Don had to guess, he would have said the man was in his late forties to early fifties.

"How can I help you?" Don said as he came forward. He had no idea why a lawyer would be here; they were questioning no one except Agent Lynn, and Don hadn't seen her make any phone calls though she had been typing on her phone a lot.

"You are questioning my client, Agent Cheyenne Lynn," the man said shaking Don's hand. Though he was oozing confidence, he was smiling and being genial. If he had any idea what his client was being accused of, he didn't let on. "I would like to see her right away."

"Of course," Don said as he led the man to the room where Agent Lynn was sitting calmly typing on her phone.

When the door opened and she saw the lawyer walk in, she smiled, stood up, and walked over to shake his hand. She greeted him in French, but as Don left, the lawyer turned to him and said, "I will need all of the recording devices in this room turned off so I can talk with my client, Agent Eppes."

"Of course," he said as he exited the room. Agent Lynn and her lawyer were just sitting down at the table, though she continued to speak in French.

He was no sooner out of the door than Robin walked up to him. "What is Andrew Westborn doing here?" she asked looking straight at the interrogation room where Agent Lynn was talking with her lawyer.

"He said he was her lawyer," Don answered turning so he could look where Robin was looking.

"He's the most expensive lawyer in the state," Robin said turning back to Don. "There is no way that Agent Lynn could afford him on an FBI agent's salary."

"Especially not on speed dial," Don muttered.


End file.
